It’s a start, Albany County

Our opinion: Legislators adopt a more reasonable budget with a smaller tax increase. How serious are they about some critical fiscal innovation?

Say this for the Albany County Legislature and the budget it approved Monday night — by a margin just wide enough to once again pierce the state-imposed 2 percent cap on property tax increases: It could have been much worse.

The tax increase could have been bigger than the 7.6 percent that now awaits county property owners. At one point some legislators were pushing for a 9 percent tax hike, despite County Executive Dan McCoy’s threat of a veto.

Or the Legislature could have stayed under the 2 percent cap, but only through the most irresponsible of tricks — like sticking cities and towns with the county’s $10.1 million share of tuition costs at Hudson Valley Community College.

And it could have insisted on keeping total control over a nursing home that independent studies and two county executives in a row have said is unaffordable.

So, two cheers for the County Legislature on choosing instead a refreshingly more responsible course.

For starters, legislators put funding for the nursing home into a contingency account, allowing Mr. McCoy to negotiate for its privatization while leaving the county with a backup plan if talks fall through. The most controversial issue in the budget thus seems to have been resolved with a sensible first step.

Why not three cheers?

For one thing, the county hasn’t quite gotten its fiscal house in order. This budget is balanced on a plan to come up with a more thoughtful and fairer way of sharing both costs and revenues with Albany County’s cities, towns and villages in the years to come. It was only upon just such a promise that the budget was adopted Monday night.

Under the idea offered by Phil Steck, a Colonie Democrat, the Legislature has promised to seriously study the notion that both the county and the smaller governments jointly pay for community college costs — which now are covered by the county alone — before passing down some of those costs, starting in 2014. The Legislature also will look into distributing its sales tax revenue more generously with the governments below. Both ideas must get careful consideration before they are implemented.

“I certainly hope that those who made those commitments will honor them,” says Mr. Steck. Since he is leaving in January to assume a state Assembly seat, it will be up to his current colleagues to make good on their vow to pursue a smarter solution to fiscal challenges that aren’t about to get any easier.

So now the County Legislature has to transform what otherwise will be a mere platitude into actual policy. And when it does, all this will have to amount to more than just shuffling paper. If all that results is pushing some costs down to local governments while also giving them sales tax dollars to cover those costs, it means little if anything to taxpayers. The same property taxpayers, after all, pay local and county taxes.

On the other hand, if these talks result in a balanced budget and a leaner, better-run county that isn’t merely sticking local governments with bills it would rather not pay, that third cheer might yet happen.

7 Responses

So, let me understand this….You’re cheering a 7.6% tax increase on homeowners who are already taxed up to their eyeballs, some of the highest taxed homeowners in the U.S.? The best thing I see in this is that I don’t own any property in Albany County! Keep looting those silly property owners!

All this does is reflect a ridiculous tax increase. Why do we keep electing these stuipid Democrats who have spent our money so unwisely they are bankrupting this state. Never AGAIN will I support any Democrat who is not a fiscal conservative. This is not government for the people, this is government for government. Nothing but sham. Phil Steck’s idea is not an idea, it’s a marketing gimmick, just like his politics. Now folks in Colonie, Menands, Niskayuna will have to bear the brunt of this. Vote this idiot out in 2 years.

so glad i moved out of albany county! the taxes there are ridiculous! why are you cheering for a 7.6% INCREASE???? are you one of the one percenters? people in ny are already taxed up the wazoo. the 2% cap was put in place for a reason. it wasn’t to be ignored.

The county continues on an unsustainable fiscal trajectory, and the TU editors cheer. This is not a first step. This is an irresponsible act of postponing decisions that would otherwise threaten incumbent legislators.